Google Buys Slide for $182 Million, Getting More Serious about Social Games*

We’ve just learned that Google has agreed to buy Slide for $182 million, in a deal to be announced Friday. And sources also tell us that this is not the last move Google is going to be making to cobble together a serious social gaming and apps strategy to counter Facebook.

No word on whether Slide founder Max Levchin will be joining Google or what his continuing role will be. $182 million is a nice exit no doubt, but it’s a come down from Slide’s $500 million valuation in 2008. And Levchin has said many times that success to him was Slide becoming bigger than PayPal.

Looks like it hasn’t. But it’s still possible that Levchin—who was the first investor in Slide too—is making a comparable or bigger amount personally from this sale.

[* Update: Our sources also tell us that, along with the $182m purchase price, Google has agreed to pay an additional $46m in employee retention bonuses, making the total deal size $228m. More on who made what from the deal here.]